Hello,
I am in the US and my family is contemplating a relo to Switzerland. So far in my search for schools I am finding that I will have to enroll my 10 yr old in a private school if I want her to have an English education. I want her immersed in the culture and to learn the local languages, but I feel she will need time for this and would like her to be in an english speaking school at first. I find they are very expensive. I have come across TASIS. My husband would be working in Lugano. Does anyone know of any other options within driving distance? Also, we will be bringing our dog (a border collie) we need to find a home that will accept pets and an area where we can run her daily. Thanks for your help!

Re - Education decisions.

Private schools all seem to be expensive, as you say, and changing to the Swiss schooling system later with a different curriculum later is not all that easy. After having settled in once and made friends, it is hard to swap again too.

There are plenty of opinions (sometimes contradictory) in this long Thread about Children in Swiss Schools.

It's worth going through it though as much of it comes from personal experience. Many of the posters have had to make similar decisions to yours. Maybe some came from the US. You can check their Profile.

This Thread is a mother who was worried on her child's first day at school in Switzerland and this one is the same mother a week later. The responses in both cases are from people who have been in the same situation.

Hope this helps.

to EF!

This is a topic that comes up repeatedly on EF, as you browse through the Family Matters forum you will find many other threads.

While reading them remember a fundamental fact of life: those unhappy with a service complain, while most of those happy with it keep quiet.

As I’ve given one answer here, I’ve brought this quote from the 258-kids-swiss-school Thread here too.

	Quote:	gigimari
	All these posts are wonderful, but since we would be in Lugano, I imagine the language is Italian? I too would like my daughter fluent, but we don't know how long we will be there so I would like her education to be within US curicullum so if we return to states then she will be able to transfer. I only see the TASIS school near Laguna...and it is very pricey. I guess that would have to be a sacrifice. What is the atmosphere like from this school? Is it snobbish? We could do the tution, but probably couldn't keep up with any other extravagant life styles. Wonder if my daughter would feel "different" since we would not have the money the other families may have. Any ideas on this?

Indeed, the schooling in Ticino is in Italian.
It is definitely relevant that you are intending to return to the USA.

I know nothing about TASIS. However a friend who was constantly on the move and whose daughters went to a private school in Switzerland paid for by the firm, brought up another point I’d not thought of. It wasn’t the question whether they could afford to 'keep up' with an 'extravagant life-style' which bothered her. It was whether they wanted to!

She was glad to take the children back to their homeland and the public education system there because although the children had profited from their time at the private school, she didn’t want them to grow up thinking that the life-style of many of the children there was ‘normal’.

The designer clothes, chauffeur driven cars and the like were not part of her family’s scenario. The fact that school trips, school camps or being a member of a team in inter-school sports’ events - which would normally have taken place within a small area of the country they lived in - were suddenly extended to trips all over Europe. It was not her style and she was relieved to be able to return to ‘real life’.

For a limited time it was fine but not for their entire youth.

Apart from the TASIS American School in Montagnola there are two international schools across the border in Italy: The International School in Como and the European School in Varese. You would however have to live relatively close to the schools as traffic gets very congested during rush hours.

http://www.iscomo.com

http://www.scuolaeuropeadivarese.it

We had 3 years private schooling included in the relocation package but decided to go with the local education for better integration but the children were smaller and we were not planning to leave.

______________________
Web Guide for Expats in Ticino www.lacastagna.ch